Filed To Story: Pretty Poisoned Novel by Elle Mitchell
“It’s bad,” my dad says.
“Oh yeah,” one of the security guards adds. “It’s worse.”
“What is?” I ask. “What’s going on?”
But we’re already at the doors now. And I see itthe masses of people lining the sidewalks and streets, police everywhere. Gods of Tomorrow songs blare from a nearby vehicle rigged with speakers loud enough that the ground shakes, and still, I can hear the screaming.
And they’re cheering for me.
“We love you, Teagan!” the crowd shouts.
“Teagan! Where are they?” someone else yells as I pass. “When are they coming back?”
I pass a couple more girls with ‘D’ and ‘L’ carved into their tits, and for the first time, I see it as Luca told me.
Imitation is the highest form of flattery.
“Don’t engage them,” Boyd warns. “Just get in the van.”
But I don’t listen. I raise my arms and wave to them all with cuffed hands, and they cheer even louder.
“Hey, look, Ma,” I say. “I made it.”
If looks could kill, I’d be dead right now.
Someone steps out and opens the side door of a white van about ten yards away. In pink script in front of a floral mountain mural, the words ‘Rancho San Flores Medical Retreat’ stretch across the side of the vehicle.
Retreat, huh?
A hand on my back ushers me toward the vehicle just before I hear screaming from overhead.
I look up just in time to see a woman jump from the parking garage and splatter on the pavement below.
Holy shit. Holy fucking shit.
My mom screams, burying her head into my dad’s chest. Police run from all sides as chaos ensues.
And then another jumps.
And I laugh. I fucking laugh so hard that I double over, not listening to the instructions they’re shouting at me, and eventually, that man who opened the van door grabs my feet while Boyd lifts me from under my arms. And just before they toss me into the vehicle, I swear I see the gleam of one of those gold masks in the crowd.
But I don’t have any time to process it because, even though I’m not really fighting, they stick a needle in my arm anyway and push the plunger down.
I stop laughing, and it all goes dark.
three months later
Close your eyes, sweetheart. Count to thirty. One two three four five
I gasp, sitting up in the bed and clutching at my chest. It felt so realso real I could feel my eyes burning from the dust in the field we’d kicked up just before Declan pushed me to the ground.
So real I could feel his weight on my back and his breath on my neck.
What I’d give just to feel it againto be touched again, to be held. It’s been so long; the only time I can remember what it’s like is when I dream like this. And I dream like this a lot.
I wish it’d stop.
I look around the small, plain white room and scream, tearing at my hair.
“What’s wrong, baby?” Luca asks, running his fingers along my back. “Did you have another bad dream?”
I nod and wipe the tears away from under my eyes. “Why didn’t you come back for me? I loved you so much. And it still hurts so bad. When will it stop hurting?”
“I can’t answer that for you, angel. I’m so sorry.”
“Why not?”
“Because I’m not real.”
Before I can reply to my ghost, the door opens.
“Am I interrupting something?” Sebastian asks.
I scowl at the orderly, who’s the closest thing I have to a friend in this shithole. “My regularly scheduled pity party.”
“Well, here’s a pro tip,” he says, passing me a small plastic cup with pills. “If you want to go home tomorrow, don’t let them see or hear you carrying on conversations with your hallucinations. Sane people don’t do that.”
“I’m aware,” I say. I look into the cup before I throw back the contents. “Aww, you brought me extras.”
“Snaked a Percocet from Harvey again. She’s so fucking out of it that it’s the last thing she needs; they’ll never notice. Consider it a parting gift.”
He hands me a small cup of water, and I wash down the pills.
“Well, if I’d known I was going to get a parting gift, I would have made a request.”
“I’m not going to fuck you, Teagan.”
“You bore me,” I tell him. “What’s the point of you, then?”
“What the fuck do you mean? I work here.”
“You could be getting endless pussy in a place like this. Is there someone else? Is it Veronica?”
Sebastian is over six feet tall and the embodiment of tall, dark, and handsome. Deep tan skin, eyes like Declan’s, curly dark hair, and I bet under those scrubs, he’s nothing but hard muscle. Tattoos wind their way up his left arm, and just behind his ear, written on his neck, are the words, “We are each our own devil, and we make this world our hell.” It’s Oscar Wilde, but he doesn’t seem like the type who would know; he probably saw it in a meme one day, felt like going to get a tattoo. I can’t say for sure whether it’s the worst or most perfect mantra for a place like this, but I can say that I’ve lost hours staring at it over the past few months, wondering if that’s what I did and how exactly I did it. This certainly isn’t the first or second time I’ve tried to get him to fuck me. I’ve fantasized about it several times, touching myself while imagining he’d snuck inside my room and then inside me.
Unfortunately, before I come, my thoughts always slip to Declan or Luca. Sometimes River, if my subconscious self feels a little less masochistic.
Every fucking time.
“You know this is sexual harassment, right? Has it ever occurred to you that maybe I just don’t want crazy pussy? Maybe I just don’t need another fucking problem.”
“You’ll miss me when I’m gone.”
He rolls his eyes, then shrugs. “You keep it interesting, I guess. Come on, I’ll take you to breakfast. Leave your imaginary friends here.”
I sigh and walk toward the door, looking back and adding to the empty room, “Hey guys, sorry. I’ll be back later.”
Sebastian shakes his head as we make our way down the hall.
“What?”
“Nothing, just it’s very hard to discern if you’re actually crazy or not.”
“Thank you,” I tell him. “That’s kind of the point, isn’t it?”
New Book: Returned To Make Them Pay
On her wedding anniversary, Alicia is drugged and stumbles into the wrong room—straight into the arms of the powerful Caden Ward, a man rumored never to touch women. Their night of passion shocks even him, especially when he discovers she’s still a virgin after two years of marriage to Joshua Yates.